As leaders from Jewish communities around the world gather in Jerusalem for the
Presidential Conference, strategies to defeat the efforts aimed at depriving
Israel of legitimacy will again be examined.

For more than 10 years –
since the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa – the
leaders of this war have exploited human rights rhetoric and international legal
claims to push their objective to eliminate Israel as the nation state of the
Jewish people. Their strategy is to portray Israel as an “apartheid,” “racist”
and “colonial” state that is so “criminal” that it is beyond rehabilitation. The
message is driven by and is echoed through hundreds of NGOs, creating a very
dangerous moral atmosphere.

The “vehicle of choice” to pursue this
strategy is the global BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions – campaign, which
is being pushed in communities and on university campuses around the world. This
campaign, and the overall strategy, also targets and isolates supporters of
Israel.

Sabeel, a pro-BDS, anti-Semitic NGO that promotes Palestinian
liberation theology, hosted a conference at which an activist admitted that “the
actual goal of divestment and the broader BDS movement is to isolate Israel, and
make it embarrassing to support Israel.” Often, in local Jewish communities,
fringe anti-Israel groups with “Jewish” in their names provide cover for these
types of extreme anti-Israel campaigners, including those that use anti-Semitic
rhetoric.

In this, it is critical to engage with individuals and groups
that have lent their names to this cause, sometimes without understanding the
goals. The Israel Action Network has begun significant work in this regard,
developing alliances with key labor unions that are targeted or co-opted by the
delegitmization campaign.

Ending this passive support for BDS is an
important step towards marginalizing the NGOs that promote these
campaigns.

IN ADDITION, when these NGOs and the BDSers invade campuses,
Jewish students and local communities have strategically organized to fight BDS
resolutions in their student unions. Similarly, when the demonizers publicize
calls for boycotts at local food co-ops, the community responds.

But, in
this war, it is necessary to change the main tactics and strategy from reactive
to proactive, in order to undermine the credibility and influence of the NGO
engines that drive the attack. This strategy will expose the fringe and anti-
Semitic nature of many of the BDS movement’s central actors, and expose the lie
that BDS is a grassroots protest against Israeli policy.

The fact is that
hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade from both European
governments and private donations have gone to hundreds of NGOs that sustain and
advance this campaign.

The powerful NGO campaigns of false allegations
targeting Israel creates the environment where NGO delegitimization events occur
almost daily. On June 6, for example, Amnesty International published a report
accusing Israel of wrongdoing regarding administrative detention of terror
suspects.

Although the claims were entirely unsubstantiated, based on
unverifiable information, and comprised largely of a one-sided Palestinian
narrative, it was immediately highlighted in the international
media.

While the Israeli government and major pro-Israel organizations
were made aware of this report’s impending release, they were still unable to
effectively counter the onslaught of entirely predictable negative media
coverage.

Reactions, which are tactical, are becoming somewhat more
effective in combating BDS, but the counterattacks remain
insufficient.

To win this war, these resources need to be focused
intelligently on naming and shaming the promoters of demonization that exploit
human rights, as well as their funders, particularly in European
governments.

The writer is communications director of NGO Monitor, a
Jerusalem-based research institution dedicated to promoting universal human
rights and to encouraging civil discussion on the reports and activities of
nongovernmental organizations, particularly in the Middle East.